


Acoustic Arrangements

by T Verano (t_verano)



Series: December, This Time Around [12]
Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: 2015 TS Secret Santa Drabble Days prompt "carols - caroling", Christmas fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-15
Updated: 2015-12-15
Packaged: 2020-05-02 00:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19188235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_verano/pseuds/T%20Verano
Summary: December with the guys a couple of years post-TSbyBS.Jim's in the cabin, Blair's in Cascade, but they're still spending the evening together.





	Acoustic Arrangements

**Author's Note:**

> written for the 2015 TS Secret Santa Drabble Days prompt "carols - caroling"

The only light in the cabin came from the fire in the fireplace and the tiny white lights on the Christmas tree. The only sound came from the quiet pops and crackles of the burning logs and from the phone resting on Jim's thigh.

He was stretched out on the couch with his back propped up against one of the arms, sipping from a mug of Irish coffee, and just… listening. And looking; enjoying the way the tree, with its branches bare of all decoration except for those tiny white lights, looked… right. Looked the way it should, like it'd been brought into the cabin straight from the woods with a bunch of stars tangled up in its branches. Which was a ridiculous thought, but Jim was too relaxed at the moment to be bothered by the absurdity of it.

 _Stars._ The plaintive strains of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" rose from the phone on Jim's thigh, perfectly clear to Jim's ears — one of the perks of his sometimes otherwise frustrating senses — and he found himself smiling. Whoever had written this arrangement for acoustic guitar had known what they were doing, softening the song and dressing it up a little, elevating a carol Jim had never been particularly impressed by before to something almost haunting.

The tree seemed that way to Jim, too — haunting, almost. He hadn't wanted any ornaments or garlands on it this year, only the 'stars,' and Blair hadn't even looked disappointed at the thought; had just smiled and said, "Works for me," and piled some of the ornaments they usually put on the tree into a couple of baskets, lining up the rest on the fireplace mantel. It looked good, all of it. It looked like Christmas.

Or as much like Christmas as it _could_ look, without Blair here.

"O Little Town of Bethlehem" segued gently into "What Child Is This," and Jim let himself imagine Blair right now, sitting on the couch in the loft, head bent a little as he focused on his guitar, with the phone he'd put on the coffee table letting Jim hear every sure-fingered chord.

Letting him hear every breath Blair took. Letting him hear Blair's heartbeat.

The fire crackled and popped, and the gold and silver balls in the basket Blair had put on the wooden chest reflected its flickering light. The couch was comfortable and Jim's Irish coffee was going down easy and smooth, and across the room, tiny white stars rested on the branches of the Christmas tree.

Back in Cascade, Blair moved on to "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." Jim sipped more of his jazzed-up coffee and looked at the stars he and Blair had brought inside; looked, and listened to Blair.


End file.
